Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel supply unit to be used for adjusting a flow rate and a pressure of fuel gas to be supplied from a fuel container to a supply destination.
Related Art
Heretofore, there is known a fuel cell system disclosed in Japanese patent application publication No. 2012-156033 (JP-A-2012-156033), for example. This fuel cell system is provided with a fuel cell that will generate electric power by electric chemical reaction between hydrogen gas and air, a hydrogen tank that stores the hydrogen gas, and a hydrogen supply passage for supplying the hydrogen gas stored in the hydrogen tank to the fuel cell. In the hydrogen supply passage, a regulator is provided to reduce the pressure of the hydrogen gas. Downstream of the regulator, there are provided a plurality of injectors to control a flow rate and a pressure of the hydrogen gas to be supplied to the fuel cell. This system is configured to reduce the pressure of the hydrogen gas from the hydrogen tank by the regulator, injecting the pressure-reduced hydrogen gas through the injectors to thereby further reduce the pressure of the hydrogen gas, so that this hydrogen gas is then supplied to the fuel cell.
Herein, upstream of the injectors, an inlet-side manifold is provided. Those injectors are arranged in parallel, so that their inlets are individually connected to the inlet-side manifold. Downstream of the injectors, an outlet-side manifold is provided. Outlets of the injectors arranged in parallel are individually connected to the outlet-side manifold. The inlet-side manifold is supplied with hydrogen gas having the pressure reduced by the regulator. The outlet-side manifold is injected with hydrogen gas from the injectors. In the inlet-side manifold, a medium pressure sensor is provided for detecting the pressure (medium pressure) of the hydrogen gas whose pressure has been reduced by the regulator. This medium pressure sensor is located at an upper part of the inlet-side manifold so as to protrude outside. In the outlet-side manifold, further, a low pressure sensor is provided for detecting the pressure (low pressure) of the hydrogen gas just before being supplied to the fuel cell. This low pressure sensor is located at an upper part of the outlet-side manifold so as to protrude outside. Since the inlet-side manifold, the outlet-side manifold, the injectors, the medium pressure sensor, and the low pressure sensor are integrally provided as above, a hydrogen gas supply pipe system is unitized into a unit, and further this unit is configured in compact size.